Sometimes you're lucky enough to meet someone who's just that little bit quirky & who will say something that puts a smile on your face for the rest of the day. For me that day was last Friday & that person was a retired art-college teacher: Geoff Hawkins. He's a charmer.
I took a little drive to Tetbury to see my great friends Martin & Carrie to discuss having our wedding rings made & when I got back into the car a gentleman knocked on my window & asked if he could take a photograph of the two of us because we looked so lovely together.
Obviously, I was cautious, so I asked him why & he explained that he's a hobby photographer & had driven past when I was walking to the car & he decided that he wanted to add us to his ever growing collection of photographs of strangers.
I'm not going to lie, initially I was a little weirded out by the prospect of having our picture taken by someone that I didn't know, but I'm really glad that I got over myself & I feel kind of proud to be a part of his project.
After he retired from teaching at art college he felt like he wanted to do something for himself & being a people-person he decided that he was going to set himself the challenge of photographing a stranger every day & documenting the images that he took here. That was back in 2009, he said he missed it so much that he just had to do it again last year & he told me that it became such a big part of his life that he's just carried it on to this year too.
I think it's amazing to see someone who's truly followed through with a challenge that they've set themselves & it's always lovely to meet a person who's passionate about what they do: Be it a job, or hobby & it doesn't hurt being complemented by that person either.
Have you guys met Geoff before? If you see him around, say hi: He's a lovely man.
